The Pledge

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August 2009

Whitewashed walls and old wooden doors fill the small cottage where Eloise spends her days and nights. Muslin drapes cast ghostly shadows as they billow out from the draughty windows with many panes of thick distorted glass made butter yellow by their sunlit glow.

All colours are pale and hazy, all except the trail of wonderfully coloured buttons that litters the floor and winds from room to room, ending in a corner where a rickety old sailor’s chest overflows with collections of these candy tinted delights. Eloise adds a new pair of buttons every day to add a touch of vividness to her otherwise faded attire, a simple delight to brighten her day.

Hello friends!! Well I am so behind in blogging my 'list of things past/present and future' and the list is ever growing so I thought I had better at least make a small attempt at getting through it.

This doll was actually completed a wee while ago and I am only now getting around to editing the photographs and writing the stories. She is part of my very exciting collaboration that I may have mentioned a while back with my very good friend Debbie Bryan who has recently opened her own shop and studio in the historic Lace Market here in Nottingham. We had discussed working on a collaboration some time ago and these dolls are the result (with more to come!). As well as beautiful knitted scarves, Debbie also works with resin, creating buttons, brooches and cufflinks to which she adds the most wonderful textures and inclusions. Her larger brooches contain hand remnants of the past and other wonderful delights - go to her website to see! Anyway as I had been using vintage buttons for a wee while on my dolls it just seemed the perfect opportunity to use some of Debbies hand cast buttons, which are completely unique and just add that extra dimension to my characters both in their costumes and in their stories. Currently they are exclusively sold in Debbies Shop & Studio.

As a celebration of our collaboration, Debbie is holding a 'meet the artist' (Me!) event and tea party on Sunday 13th September - see here for more details. I will be there working on some of my characters, there will be tea and cake. I would really love to see you there.

Hello there! Well with all the excitement about my radio interview (thank you so much for your lovely comments) - I almost forgot to tell you that we had a wee (much needed) trip away last week. Our plans to travel up to Scotland had to change at the last minute due to Mark's first hand experience of the much reported 'swine flu' (he is fine now and unbelievably I managed to stay completely clear of it despite the media reports).

Anyhow, he managed to recover just in time for us to take a couple of days away for some fresh air and relaxation. Now I should perhaps mention here, that my dear sweetheart in all the time that I have known him, has never really been that excited about the thought of 'sleeping on the ground with little more than a piece of fabric protecting him from the elements' (as he would say). I, however love, love, love camping (can I really express how much I love camping?) but had not had the joy of going away since I met my future hubby.

I love the whole experience of it - the packing the car, the driving to who knows where, the 'will it won't it rain/blow a gale/flood the tent uncertainty, the fresh air and well, really just the whole shebang. So really you could have blown me over with a feather when the still slightly grey and shivering man agreed to camp out in unpredictable conditions with nothing more than a 'borrowed' sheet of fabric between him and the looming dark clouds.

So off we trotted to Robin Hood's Bay near Whitby in Yorkshire - a new place for me and an absolute treasure. The front door to our temporary home opened out to the view you see below and a ten minute walk found us visiting the most quaint, delightful village with eccentric little houses piled up on top of each other on the hill. Doorways that have stood there since the year 1630 as the sign about the door said in the photo above. Infact I found myself slightly obsessed with photographing all thd quirky little doorways and lanterns and steps to 'who knows where' and the sky and the sea and the space and distance inbetween.

You can see a few more photos here although I have not managed to upload all of them yet - so much inspiration and lovely memories of our couple of days away. I have a feeling some of these images may be appearing in new work very soon.

Oh, and yes it did rain, oh boy did it rain. Torrential rain and lashing winds the first night, relentless downpour the day we were in Whitby walking about like the proverbial 'drowned rats' in our waterproofs and sandals (ever hopeful that some sun would appear to warrant the clothing which expects all weathers). My lovely man could not resist a few half-hearted complaints, but deep down I knew that he was just as grateful to be away, somewhere different, somewhere new with nothing else to think about other than finding a tea shop in which to sit in sodden clothes and chat about this and that and gaze out at the coast and the dark clouds. The second day (of course the day we were leaving) was brighter and sunnier and more pleasant for wandering and discovering strange little quirky characteristics that make up this lovely little village.

Bliss.

Oh and would you like to know what our first priority was on our return? Before we had even finished unpacking and dried out the tent...............yep we bought one of our very own. Slightly bigger, slightly sturdier (we hope) and with standing room, so that the next time we go away to a rainy spot, to make a temporary home from home, we can set up chairs and a table, gaze out at the pouring rain, play cards, chat about this and that and make our very own cups of tea.

if you so wish....... I had wanted to let you know before but was so stupidly nervous about the whole thing that I didn't really want to tell many people - but I made an appearance on BBC Nottingham radio this morning! Although I was feeling so sick before it, the actual interview wasn't half as bad as I thought it might be and listening back I almost sound coherant....

short and sweet (and gosh I sound so much different than I thought I did!!!) you can find the interview here and it is about 2hrs and 10 minutes into the show - it didn't take long for me to load and you can skip to the actual bit with me in it - it is only about 10 minutes long with a song half way through). I had so many things noted down to talk about and they didn't ask me about any of it!

It will only be at this link for the next 7 days (till next tuesday) so I need to figure out how to save it to disc before then when it will hopefully be on my website so I will let you know the link to that when I have it.

PS. please excuse my rather annoying habit (which I have only just noticed) where I go Hmmmm quite alot and then make a sort of a tutting sound................. I sound so disapproving! But I am pleased to note that even after 4 years in Nottingham I have retained my wee semi-scottish accent!